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Topic: Ranking Prospects (Read 28400 times)

I do not expect the Leafs to give us much to cheer about over the next two years, unless you like Tank Nation type cheering. What we can get excited about is the prospects, which over time is going to be a longer and deeper list for sure.

I'm wondering if people with better knowledge and insight than I have would be able to help start a discussion about the depth of prospects the Leafs have right now. How would you rank them? One to three are likely to be agreed on, but what about after that? Does anyone with the knowledge and the time to do so want to rank the top 10 or 20?

Obviously, like scouting rankings, there are degrees of subjectivity and preference that come into play. I use these lists as a way to get to know the prospects in the pipeline, as I haven't the opportunity to watch them in action.

I have an eye on the following:ForwardWilliam NylanderMitch MarnerKasperi KapanenAndreas JohnsonConnor BrownFrederic Gauthier

Obviously, like scouting rankings, there are degrees of subjectivity and preference that come into play. I use these lists as a way to get to know the prospects in the pipeline, as I haven't the opportunity to watch them in action.

Is that a perfect list? Not really, but lets go from there. I would say that Brown, Johnson, and Bibeau trended upward, while Percy, Finn, and Leivo had their stocks drop somewhat. So if we're just ranking those guys it'd look something like Nylander-Brown-Johnson-Gauthier-Loov-Percy-Finn-Bibeau-Nilsson-Leivo. You could make the case too that Carter Verhaeghe deserves to be there too, or at least he'd be very close.

Then we obviously added a decent amount of guys who deserve consideration. Marner and Kapanen for sure. Leipsic, Harrington, Bailey, Hyman. If I had to start ranking guys, I'd be more comfortable doing it in tiers like this:

NylanderMarner

KapanenBrownJohnson

LeipsicGauthierHarrington

BraccoDermott

LoovPercyLeivoNilsson

FinnBaileyHymanSoshnikovVerhaegheValiev

And that just happens to be 20 players so I'll stop there. Some of the other guys from this draft like Lindgren, Timashov, and Korostelev deserve consideration here too, but maybe it's a little too early to start throwing their names out. I'd probably put their potential over some older guys like Leivo/Bailey/Hyman but they don't have the experience yet of course.

Then there's a handful of NCAA guys from before this draft like Cameranesi, Toninato, Joshua, Piccinich, and Vesey that I have no idea how I'd rank. They're all long-shots really but maybe we get one NHLer out of the bunch, who knows.

I watched Cameranesi in the last game against Boston C. and he was amazing, he was on the puck all the time. He could be the sleeper and I think Toninato has some upside as well. Of course these are long horses but the more horses in the race the more that will cross the finish line. Man we seem to be filling the empty cupboards fairly quickly. Right now we have 11 picks for next year, at this rate we could end up with 15 for the 16 draft.

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"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" Navaho Proverb

This got me thinking. I wonder what it would look like if we kept a list of the top 10 or top 20 prospects year over year for the next few years. It's no stretch to think that the quality in the next 2 - 3 years is going to go up a lot.

Nylander and Marner on my watch are going to be almost of equal talents in hope, although the mutual hope is they both become superstars.I will be giving my full team list of nicknames shortly (which I don't use for offending most) but I will say I want to call this kid: Gran Marner (after one of my favorite nightcaps)

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"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" Navaho Proverb

So, hypothetically speaking, you believe that if Nylander and Marner were not both prospects of the same team, that any GM would trade away Marner to get Nylander? I disagree, by some distance.

Marner had an unbelievable year in Jnr last year and still has that new draft pick smell that makes him fancy and exciting, but I'm absolutely stunned at how little coverage the year that Nylander had as a pro and a teenager at that, has had.

Nylander's first pro season was more impressive to me, for what he achieved on the ice and also in the weight room.

This got me thinking. I wonder what it would look like if we kept a list of the top 10 or top 20 prospects year over year for the next few years. It's no stretch to think that the quality in the next 2 - 3 years is going to go up a lot.

Well even just from my completely unofficial rankings 6 of the top-10 are players that we've added since February. That's a pretty big injection of talent.

This got me thinking. I wonder what it would look like if we kept a list of the top 10 or top 20 prospects year over year for the next few years. It's no stretch to think that the quality in the next 2 - 3 years is going to go up a lot.

Well even just from my completely unofficial rankings 6 of the top-10 are players that we've added since February. That's a pretty big injection of talent.

It borders on a full on transfusion. Other than Nylander and Brown, nearly everyone else brought in has bumped the old pool down a few tiers.